Growing interest in traditional Chinese medicine in the United States promotes a new potentially lucrative niche market for farmers planting varieties of herbs, flowers and trees sought by practitioners.
While almost all practitioners still rely on imports from China, the wild decline is there, and the problems of quality and safety, could stimulate demand for herbs grown in Several US states have introduced "growth groups" to help farmers establish test the most popular plants stands.
"As a farmer, I like the idea of growing something that nobody else grows, something that is good for people," said Rebecca Rice Delmar, near Albany, which is among the 30 members of a group of more than New York. "This project is seriously fascinating."
Jean Giblette, a researcher who has set up the New York group, said it could also be a moneymaker. It considers that the market for medicinal plants cultivated in the country to $ 200 million to $ 300 annually.
Traditional Chinese medicine is gaining widespread acceptance in the US There are 30,000 licensed practitioners across the country - 46 states to issue licenses, often requiring a master's degree and continuing education credits. In 2014, the Cleveland Clinic has opened one of the first Chinese based therapy clinics hospital plants in the country.
Jamie Starkey, a licensed practitioner of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Integrative Medicine, said the quality, authenticity and purity are important concerns with herbal products.
"If producers in the United States can produce a high quality product that is identical to the species from China, without contamination by heavy metals or pesticides, I think it is a great opportunity for farmers," Starkey said.
Over 300 plants are commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine. Giblette and Peg Schafer, a herb producer in Petaluma, California, has developed a list of marketable species for American farmers. They include Angelica dahurica, a perennial flowering plant whose root is used to relieve pain and inflammation; Tataricus aster, garden aster parent said to have anti-bacterial properties; Mentha haplocalyx, mint used for stomach aches; and Salvia miltiorrhiza, a type of sage whose roots are used to treat cardiovascular diseases.
The National Institutes of Health said traditional Chinese medical techniques - which included practices such as acupuncture and Tai Chi - are mainly used as a complement to traditional medicine. The agency warns that some herbs can have serious side effects, and there is not enough rigorous scientific evidence as to whether traditional Chinese medicine works for the conditions it treats. Clinical trials are difficult because the treatments involve custom plants combinations for each patient.
Giblette, who started the Foundation in High Falls Hudson Valley of New York in 2008 to promote research and conservation of medicinal plants, said more and more in conditions similar to the natural habitat of the plant is one key to the production of high-quality medicinal plants. The foundation will provide the plant so it can guarantee the authenticity of species and market products for basic plants authorized practitioners.
Market research shows a high demand and low supply, said Rob Glenn, president of Blue Ridge Center for non-profit Chinese medicine Pilot, Virginia.
"Current herbs from China are not of the quality they once were and American practitioners indicate that they are willing to pay a high price for cultivated herbs with organic principles, premises, with high efficiency," he said.
Using an economic development grant from the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission, the Blue Ridge Center enlists local farmers to cultivate medicinal herbs that the center process and sell to licensed practitioners. This year, the center has planted 38 species of 35 farms.
The center has sent samples of the first crop of 26 practitioners who agreed to assess the quality and effectiveness.
"We were super impressed with the samples we received," said Ken Morehead, a practitioner at Eastern Health Solutions in Durham, North Carolina. "We really want to have access to organic herbs. I think farmers can do well and we can have an industry that supports the local economy, which is good for the environment and improves people's health. " AP